Delegation

Advocates of the University System of Maryland at Hagerstown  urged a House of Delegates committee Tuesday to reject a funding plan they claim could shut down the campus. But Del. John L. Bohanan Jr., who is pushing for the funding change to help higher-education centers outside the University System, said he's “a little bit puzzled” by the argument that his bill will be a breaking point for Hagerstown. “My own center has gone through a lot of reductions,” Bohanan said, referring to a higher-education center in his southern Maryland district.

The National Park Service is taking a slightly different tack this year to get state money for C&O Canal National Historical Park improvements in Williamsport. Last year, the Park Service asked the Washington County delegation to request up to $215,000 to work on Lock 44 and the Western Maryland Railroad lift bridge. Republicans in the delegation balked, saying the state's financial problems were too severe to ask for the money. This year, the Park Service found a local Republican willing to help - state Sen. George C. Edwards.

John Maxey hopes to represent the newly created 66th District in the West Virginia House of Delegates next year. Maxey, 55, of 335 Old Shenandoah Trail, Harpers Ferry, W.Va., is making his first try at elected office. A Democrat, he has no opponent in the May 8 primary. He will face Republican Paul Espinosa, who also is unopposed in his party's May 8 primary, in November. The 66th District, which is wholly in Jefferson County, extends from Shannondale across the county's southern half to Kearneysville.

Del. Andrew A. Serafini urged a Maryland House panel Tuesday to pass his bill forcing the State Highway Administration to act more quickly on permit applications. Serafini told the House Environmental Matters Committee about complaints of the SHA causing unnecessary delays in some Washington County development projects. “We have to do better,” he said, charging that large businesses avoid Maryland because of its bureaucratic red tape. His bill would require SHA to act within 90 days after getting a request for a permit to access a state road.

A parochial dispute over whether Allegany County students may attend school in Hancock played out in a state legislative committee on Thursday. It was the latest in a divisive battle in Allegany County, creating an unusual situation in which one member of a delegation testified against another member's bill. Del. LeRoy E. Myers Jr., R-Washington/Allegany, is sponsoring a bill to let students go to a public secondary school in an adjacent county if they'd have to “travel greater than 30 miles” to get to the closest one in their county.

Final details apparently have been ironed out in a bill that would provide new scrutiny of the Washington County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association. Washington County's legislative delegation voted Wednesday to file the bill during this year's legislative session. Under the bill, the association would submit a budget for the Washington County Board of Commissioners to approve. If the association doesn't submit a budget or the commissioners don't approve the budget, the association would not get its share of proceeds from tip-jar gaming until any problems are fixed.

The Maryland General Assembly's newest Republican delegates said Wednesday a statewide poll they commissioned shows most Marylanders don't want higher taxes. The group, including two delegates who represent Washington County, wore buttons that read, “We are the 96%,” referring to the percentage of survey respondents who said their tax burden is either too high or just right. Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies Inc. conducted the poll from Jan. 9-15 for Del. Kathy Szeliga, R-Harford/Baltimore County.

Washington County's state legislators agreed on Wednesday to sponsor a bill to help the bottom line for groups who sell tip-jar games, despite opposition from county government officials. The Washington County Restaurant & Beverage Association asked that the $2 fee for stickers for each tip jar be subtracted from gross profits, arguing that it otherwise would be double taxation, since operators are also taxed on those gross profits. The Washington County Board of Commissioners and the county administrator opposed the change because it means cutting into tip-jar proceeds distributed to local nonprofit organizations Still, the county legislative delegation voted unanimously to support the association's request and submit it as a bill during this General Assembly session.

Washington County's state legislative delegation got closer Wednesday to agreeing on a final bill proposing new oversight over the financial workings of the Washington County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association. At a delegation meeting in Annapolis, lawmakers answered questions raised by Dale Hill, the association's president. Hill's main concern was whether the wording of the proposed bill would give county government officials budgetary oversight power over not just the association, but also its member fire and rescue companies.

Gov. Martin O'Malley has promised an ambitious agenda this legislative session, but in a part of the state where ambitious agendas are not necessarily heralded as good things, our local lawmakers will face a delicate balancing act. Lawmakers must protect our local interests, but do so in a way that does not get the door slammed in their faces when they ask for state help with projects of local importance. The most obvious of these highwire acts will be the proposed gasoline tax, penciled in for a 5-cent increase over the next three years.